Prototype

It is pretty common knowledge that high school freshmen will encounter their first Shakespeare play, Romeo and Juliet being the most predominate choice of English teachers. It is also equally known that high school students dread the words Shakespeare and play. Who could blame them? They have probably been exposed to the idea that Shakespeare was difficult to understand and boring. That would not get me excited to read a text either if the only words I associated with it were difficult and boring. What can be done to get these students more excited and prepared for an appreciation of Shakespeare? How about staring them younger?

With our edition of Shakespeare’s As You Like It we aim to draw students in to Shakespeare’s world at an early stage in life: middle school. Through simplified text and accessible supplementary material, our edition will show students that Shakespeare’s plays can be understood and interesting. And beyond mere entertainment this edition will allow students to develop and use critical thinking skills, a skill that teachers and administrators would be ecstatic about.

With close to hundreds of editions available to choose from, there are little, if any, selections that would be appropriate for a middle school audience. Most editions are situated for a college undergraduate audience such as The New Cambridge Shakespeare edited by Michael Hatttaway, which has decent front
matter that covers topics such as gender, politics, and stage history in an attempt to situate the play in a historical context. There is also the daunting edition of from The Arden Shakespeare collection edited by Juliet Dusinberre, with such dense material that even undergraduates are left feeling overwhelmed. The Folger Library Shakespeare edited by Louis B. Wright and Virginia A. Lamar comes closer to a
younger audience: unfamiliar words footnoted with simple explanations, several illustrations, and brief font matter that talks about Shakespearean theater, woodland magic, the author, and stage history. This edition would be more appropriate for a high school audience rather than for a middle school classroom. Then there is the Magna Shakespeare edition of As You Like It, with very simplified text and wonderful Japan style illustrations would be very accessible to a younger crowd although not necessarily intellectually stimulating enough for a classroom setting.

 Our edition of As You Like It will offer appropriate text and material for a middle school audience. This edition will offer teachers a medium that will help middle school students understand, appreciate, and even enjoy reading Shakespeare.

• articles: Middle Ground: To like or Not to Like

• article about appropriate teaching of S. and students response
• “When I asked my 7th-graders if they thought studying Shakespeare was going to be boring, every hand in the class went up” (DeFord 85).
• “No wonder, on the end-of-year evaluations, students rank Shakespeare as one of their favorite subjects” (DeFord 86).

• What our edition will do:
• simplified text while maintaining the integrity of Shakespeare’s language 
• footnotes for unfamiliar words
• vocab words for students
• supplementary material which is written in a way that is easily accessible to students:
• preface  
• stuff between acts  
• links to more if interested in more
• end of act critical thinking questions 
• common core standards:
• 4.a use context as a clue for word meaning
• 4.c. use specialized reference materials to find pronunciation or precise meaning
• 5.a interpret figures of speech 
• 5.b use relationship of words to better understand each word
• 6 acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain specific words and phrases; gather vocab knowledge... 
• teachers edition with more info, maybe ideas to teach(?)  

As You Like It Middle School Edition Prototype